Jeff Vanke tells people he’s running for Congress against Rep. Bob Goodlatte because he “can balance the budget and they won’t.”
That was Vanke’s greeting to people at the picnic shelter and playground of Peaks View Park in Lynchburg on Friday. To those who would listen, he explained that his website shows how the federal budget can be balanced.
Vanke, 40, of Roanoke, is running as an independent against Goodlatte, a Republican who has been in Congress for 18 years.
Vanke has never run for office in Virginia.
For five years he taught European and world history at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., and served on the college’s budget committee.
He recommends a variable-rate income tax that would rise with federal deficits, and fall when surpluses occur. Social Security should be reformed by raising the retirement age to 70, he said.
Vanke organized his own political party, the Center Party, from his Roanoke home while also being a stay-at-home dad. He set a goal of recruiting candidates to carry the party’s banner, but couldn’t get enough people on ballots in Virginia to qualify as a recognized third party.
Vanke said he’s running against Goodlatte because, as a member of a Republican majority in Congress for six years, Goodlatte “supported imbalanced budgets — $1.5 trillion worth. That’s more than $10,000 per American worker in additional federal debt,” Vanke said.
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